fragments of then, now & tomorrow
by Kanae-88
Summary: Their past is tainted with blood; his clan's, her village's. Their present is tainted with blood, too; his, hers spilled by his own hands. And their future...? Well, we will have to find out, won't we? SasuKarin
1. Set 1

**Disclaimer:** It's been a while since I've dedicated myself to writing SasuKarin, so I did these prompts to try and get used to their characterization again. This will have around 5 chapters, 2 of them (including this one) gathering sets of prompts, and 3 containing individual drabbles that I originally posted back in 2010.

I hope they are enjoyable.

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><p><strong>fragments of then, now &amp; tomorrow<strong>

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Set 1: _prompts taken from 13drabbles (livejournal)_

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><p><strong>GANMA<strong>

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**#7 - Tell **

Sasuke does not need to say a single word, and he knows this. He knows that with just a mere look or gesture Karin will understand what he means; _what he wants, what he seeks, what he is thinking_—he can tell that Karin gets it all in an instinctive level that was sometimes so sharp that it took him aback.

It frightened him, sometimes. The feeling of knowing your mind is being read—the feeling of not knowing just _what_ Karin would do with that knowledge.

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**#2 - Follow Me**

"Karin," he says, and her name sounds like a plea even though his voice remained its usual impassive baritone. She does not hesitate, and her eyes never leave his as she walks towards him.

"Anywhere," she states in reply to his unasked question, and Sasuke's gaze clears like a sky after a storm.

_Even to hell._

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**#5 – Quirky**

"Hey, Karin, could you—?" the Uchiha trails off as Karin jumps, startled, hurrying to attempt to hide the object she was holding behind her back. But she is not fast enough, and he catches a glimpse of a very familiar shirt.

_His_ shirt.

He blinks. His lips part—and then he thinks better of it.

"W-what is it?"

"Nothing," he says, "forget it."

He was probably better off not knowing what Karin was up to.

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**#4 – Fear**

She had never been scared of him. Not really. Not even when he spoke and raved on and on about revenge, not even when his cursed seal took over and his bloodlust overtook the whole room like a ghostly veil. Not even when black became crimson and his tomoe spun crazily in the middle of the lava, promising to brew a volcano.

Not even as he stared down at her and behaved like the cold and uncaring person he had always pretended to be, did she fear him. Not even as his Susano'o mercilessly crushed every obstacle in his way.

She did not fear him not even as he stood over her with a chidori in his palm, said his goodbyes and prepared himself to finish her off.

No, not even then.

All along, Karin had only been fearing for him instead.

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**#9 – Dance**

They dance together all the time, the ball of life&death. She was always his first choice, his most loyal partner. The identity of their opponent never did matter, Sasuke did not care about looking after himself because he knew Karin had his back; they had always functioned well that way. Seamlessly. Like two pieces of a puzzle.

But then he started to step on her feet, to lose the rhythm and forget the beat—and so Karin lets go of his hand.

She no longer trusted him to lead her.

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**#8 – Heartbeat**

There is a small, tear-shaped scar lying right atop of her heart. The lighting spear that had caused it had never touched the organ, not really—but the eyes of its user had not missed. They had hit the bull's eye, mercilessly tearing it apart with his callous words and his disregard for everything she had ever fought for, everything she stood for—her wound had been healed and the organ continued to fulfill its job just fine, but it had never quite started to beat again.

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**#3 – Glow**

Her eyes don't glow—they _burn_, as if there was a fire threatening to burst out and consume him whole like the flames of his amaterasu.

_Too bad_, _Karin_, Sasuke thinks as he holds her gaze, unflinching—her pain due to his betrayal was nothing in comparison with his hatred and desire for vengeance, boiling in the pattern of his sharingan like an inferno.

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**#11 – Power**

All Sasuke sought was power. Karin knew that. When it wasn't the power to kill his brother and avenge his clan, it was the power to crush Konoha; and when it wasn't the power to crush Konoha, it was the power to kill Naruto. It always came down to that.

Power, _power_, power. That was fine with Karin. She liked power herself, and Sasuke's strong personality was one of the traits that had attracted her to him in the first place. But… there was a limit to everything, and the kind of power Sasuke lusted after was becoming more and more dangerous.

Karin sighs.

… If only Sasuke cared about the type of power he had over her.

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**#10 – Time**

Suigetsu and Juugo know there is no point in bothering with '_if'_ when all it came down was to '_when'_. Not to _when_ Karin would finally get Sasuke where she wants him, _no_—rather, to _when_ Sasuke would open his eyes and realize the redhead had trapped him in her web thread a long, long time ago.

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><p><strong>DELTA;<strong>

**#1 - First Time**

The first time Karin sees his smile—his real, genuine smile—she feels its warmth so vividly that it felt like sunrays dancing across her cheeks, warming them up and tinting them pink.

After their paths cross again and Sasuke becomes a permanent part of her life, Karin realizes that she would do just about anything to see his smile again.

And so she does. Goes all the way and then an extra mile; she loses her hope once in the process, but continues holding on regardless.

Because she refused to believe there would _only_ be a first time.

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**#2 – Difference**

_He's not the Sasuke you once knew_, she says, and she does not know if she is trying to convince his old team or herself. Because out of them all, Karin can feel that difference the clearest—warmth had become cold, kind had become ruthless, desire had become bloodlust. So Karin knows, and states as much.

But there's a part of her refusing to believe the Sasuke she fell in love with has been lost forever. And so she repeats it—over and over—until that hopeful part of her quiets down and allows her to believe she has had enough.

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**#4 – Eyes**

Sometimes Sasuke had a hard time looking away from them. From her _eyes_, he means. _Karin's. _

They were red, and penetrating—forceful. Sometimes they spun and whirled with emotions he could not label, and sometimes they were like the calm before a storm.

They reminded him of the sharingan.

Sasuke tells himself that was the sole reason behind his apparent fixation with them.

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**#8 - The Past**

Their past is tainted with blood. His clan's, her village's. Their own as they work their hardest to overcome their liabilities and rise from the ashes in order to soar—Sasuke as the hawk seeking revenge, Karin as the wings that he could—_absolutely_—not do without.

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**#10 - The Present**

Their present is tainted with blood. His, hers spilled by his hands. And as Sasuke tears his wings apart—_encumbrances_—and discards them, he crashes to the depths at full speed. But his sight is too blinded by darkness to notice the swiftness with which he was nearing the ground, and his mind is too high on revenge to realize he was falling, in the first place.

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**#9 – The Future**

Their future is still unknown. But among all the uncertainty, Karin realizes there was a truth that irrevocably anchored her to Sasuke, despite everything.

And that was that Karin will cushion his fall. Because, _as she finds out_—even if she could not be his wings, he had been hers all along.

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**#12 – Someone Missing**

She feels his absence as if it were a corporeal being twice his size. Ominous, empowering, intimidating and chillingly cold. She fights it on a daily basis, tries to pretend that she is blissfully unaware.

But Karin has never been good at pretending, and when that fails she tells herself that even being hollow as she now was, was better than the feel of his cold chakra consuming and sucking her dry.

_Eventually that falls apart, too_.

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**extra; Understanding**

Sasuke does not want to be understood. He does not care about understanding anyone, either—he just wants to be left alone. Alone with his ghosts and his pain and his revenge. Everyone else was just in the way, additions he needed to dispose of. All of them condescendingly thinking they could understand some part of him.

_Fools_, all of them.

No one understood him. _No_ one.

He would always make sure of that.

And so he leaves Karin behind.

—

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><p>Thanks for reading, reviews are more than welcome and appreciated.<p>

- Kanae


	2. Sets 2&3

**fragments of then, now & tomorrow**

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Set 2: _prompts taken from 40baisers (livejournal)_

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><p><strong>025. worthwhile<strong>

Karin did not care if Sasuke kept to himself most of the time. She was not with him to hear him talk (though if he did, she surely won't be one to complain), not when she could always hear everything he thought loud and clear in his silence and sense everything he felt in the flow of his chakra.

For that reason, every moment spent by his side was worthwhile.

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**002. blurry**

Bloodlust spills all over his scruples, smearing everything it comes across until the line between _guilty_ and _innocent_ gets blurred to the point he loses himself and his boundaries. But his sight remains clear, and so her betrayed face engraves itself into the forsaken part of his heart; the one that would not be beating again any time soon.

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**037. that which is lost**

"Karin, track—" he stops himself with a start, realizing only too late that he was talking to thin air. Karin was not there anymore. She would never be there again.

He had made sure of that.

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**024. paying dues**

He looks up at her, droplets of rain dripping down her hair and onto his cheeks, sliding down and wiping away the trails of blood that had leaked from his eyes and down his chin. She is struggling to keep a hold of herself, he knows. Fighting to remain calm and composed and help him stay alive—as she always had. As she probably always would.

"I'm sorry,"

He breathes out, and Karin stops unzipping down her blouse and gives him a startled look.

"I'm sorry,"

He repeats, more strongly this time. And as he sees the way her defenses crumble and traitorous tears gather in the corners of her eyes, Sasuke thinks that he won't mind repeating himself over and over.

At least until he can forgive himself, just like she had forgiven him.

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**015. childhood scars **(_post series_)

Karin's body is flawed and tarnished. She tries to hide this behind her long sleeves, high-collar and long stockings; but these amount to nothing as he takes her in his arms for the first time and her scars are laid bare for him to see. Teeth-marks running all over the tender skin of her arms, chest and legs, so much so that there were barely any remains of skin left unharmed. Karin flinches despite herself; the sight was disgusting, she knew. She hid them for a reason.

And Sasuke was finally realizing the real extent of it, and _he_—he carefully takes her wrist to his lips and kisses the inside of it, taking Karin's breath away as he repeated the motion all over her arms, laying kisses across her skin as if it were immaculate silk.

And then he falls to his knees, and as his lips lay on her thighs—and trace up and _up_, into the sensible parts that Karin had not let anyone touch before, Karin arches her head back and loses her breath for entirely different reasons.

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><p><strong>fragments of then, now &amp; tomorrow<strong>

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Set 3: _prompts taken from 30romances (livejournal) _- PART1

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><p><strong>6. Soooo not funny! ; Sarcasm<strong>

"Well, if Karin dislikes me so much she can just leave, right? Who needs her? Juugo's birds can do the job, anyway."

"_Suigetsu_,"

"What? Are you telling me I'm not right? Come on, Sasuke," Suigetsu taunts, smirking, and Sasuke gives him a long, unreadable look before going back to analyzing the map they had acquired.

"Karin isn't going anywhere. I told you, _I_ need her."

Suigetsu snorts. "Puh-lease Sasuke, she's a total bitch! She's more trouble than she's worth!"

"If you dislike Karin so much, _you_ can just leave."

The smirk melts down Suigetsu's face and he frowns, crossing his arms.

"Not funny, Sasuke."

"I wasn't trying to be."

Well, _damn him_.

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**33. Cold hands**

"Sasuke, here is the map you wanted," she says, and as he reaches out to take it their fingers brush.

Her hands are cold.

"What are you—?"

"You're cold, Karin," Sasuke states blandly, his expression not shifting in the slightest, "I need you to be at the top of your game tomorrow, so don't get sick."

Karin hesitates but then hastily looks away, a light blush coloring her otherwise pale cheeks as she reaches out to secure the cloak he had just placed on her. "W-what about you? Won't you be cold like that?"

Sasuke, now cloak-less, simply shrugs nonchalantly before walking away. "It won't make a difference."

_I always am._

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**33. Perfume **

Sasuke looks up, startled, as a cloak is carelessly thrown at him. He finds Karin looking at him, but as soon as their eyes met she turns sideways and all he can see is her profile, her nose stuck up in the air.

"It's your turn to be on the look-out and it's cold outside, so have it back."

He sees no point in arguing, "Right."

Karin says nothing else, does not even take a glance at him as he stands up and heads to the mouth of the cave where they and the rest of Taka were resting for the night. However, that changes once he makes his way past her.

"Thanks,"

She murmurs, and Sasuke almost halts. Almost.

Instead, he goes on and pretends to not have heard—just like Karin would pretend to not have said anything at all.

Once outside, with his cloak back on its rightful place, Sasuke notices something that makes him stop and stare down at the cloth with minor surprise.

It smelled like Karin.

It felt… warmer.

Not at all like his own.

Sasuke says nothing about it to her the next day, but Karin is aware all the same.

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**9. Rush ; Thrill ; Exhilaration**

There is a thrill of exhilaration rushing up her arm and through her chakra system, reaching her bosom and traveling downwards, _downwards_, setting on fire sensitive parts of her anatomy as Sasuke's teeth sank deeper into her skin.

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**3. Banter**

"_Suigetsu_," Sasuke warns, low and menacing, and Suigetsu feels tempted to pull his hair out or just cut him—and _her_, too—with his sword once and for all.

Sure, Sasuke would avoid the attack and would make sure Karin came out unharmed, too—but it would be satisfying to at least try.

If only to erase the satisfied and mocking smirk that Karin was giving him right then, still holding him by the neck of his shirt.

_Bitch_, he mouths. _Go die in a fire_. And Karin's eyes narrow and she pulls her fist back only to be stopped by Sasuke's voice.

"_Suigetsu_."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it."

_Fuck them all._

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**15. Take a hint ; Scram!**

"Sasuke," Karin purrs, taking her glasses off and leaning into him until her breath was brushing the lobe of his ear. "Say, Suigetsu and Juugo are busy, how about we—"

"_Karin_."

The redhead scoffs but backs away, putting her glasses back in place and glaring at the Uchiha. Damn him and his single-mindedness. _When_ would he take the hint?

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**0. After**;

When Karin comes to the bed and takes a seat by his side, Sasuke does not quite know what to expect. He never knew, not when it came to Karin. Maybe that was part of the reason why he kept her around.

"Sasuke, what will you do once you've destroyed Konoha?" she asks after a moment of pondering, never one to let her hesitation get the best of her.

Sasuke is silent. And for a frightening instant, he is almost quite lost.

"I don't know."

Karin must have sensed it in his chakra because she places her hand above his, anchoring him down to reality and guiding him, giving him a sense of direction much in the same way she always did. Maybe that was part of the reason why he kept her around.

"But, don't you have an idea or anything?"

"I don't know, Karin," he repeats, because he does not. There is not really much more to him—to his life—after destroying Konoha. It is his last goal, one he intends to see to its bitter end even if it meant dying.

He knows that much at least, and so he carefully slips his hand from under Karin's and places it back on his lap, out of her reach. The redhead gives it a look but says nothing otherwise, and so Sasuke speaks for her, "I guess I will find out when the time comes."

"We," Karin corrects, and her eyes bore into his in such a way that Sasuke would not have been capable to look away even if he wanted to, "_We_ will find out, Sasuke."

"Right," Sasuke agrees after a moment of silence, and the words are not his because he feels no conviction behind them. Karin knows this; Sasuke sees it in the way her gaze hardens—but Karin remains silent.

And maybe that was part of the reason why he kept her around.

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**24. The puppet master ; strings **

Karin could see it. Glimpses of it badly concealed in gestures and calculating looks. Gleeful feelings in his chakra that came only as Sasuke sank further and further. During those times, Karin would glare—would narrow her eyes and glare at the masked man with everything she had, but she would be ignored each and every time.

And Sasuke never took notice of it all, like the puppet he had become.

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**19. Stay**

Silence. It was not easy to spark conversation with the girl you discarded; it was almost as hard as trying to act normally with the guy who tried to kill you.

She probably should not even be there, but her heart was as stubborn as her pride. Still—she takes a look at him, laying down on the hospital bed and looking up at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes, and decides that she had already gotten what she wanted (make sure he was alright) and _so_—

"I guess I will get going," she says and begins to rise from the chair she had positioned by his bed. She has only given a single step forward when a hand shots out and grasps her wrist, effectively stopping her.

"Stay,"

Is all he says.

And Karin does.

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**21. The Devil's Advocate **

"You know, Karin, Sasuke may not say it because he is an idiot, but that bastard cares about you a lot. He really does," Naruto tells hers one day, so solemnly that Karin _almost_ laughs.

She snorts instead, "I know."

"Huh? Then why…?"

Karin cuts him off, smirking. "The bastard still tried to kill me. I'm not about to let him go off as easily as you did, whiskers."

—

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><p>I love Taka so I couldn't help but to include Suigetsu here. I would have loved to include Juugo too but he did not fit any of the prompts lol<p>

I find these a bit weaker than the previous batch, because these actually were the first ones I wrote. I hope they aren't that bad though.

In case it was not clear in #33, Karin switched their cloaks so that she could keep Sasuke's. Also, #0 is not part of the original prompts.

Anyways, thanks for reading again.


	3. Once

**Notes: **I originally wrote this drabble back in february, 2010, but I posted it solely on my lj. I thought this was the perfect chance to bring it over here, too. It was inspired by Chapter 483, and it also was my very first attempt at writing the Sasuke that we have in canon right now; the one that 'closed his eyes off to the light' and 'descended through the road of darkness' all what not. You know which one I'm talking about since the guy is still around in canon.

**Summary: **But that once is no more, and that once will never come to be again.

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**fragments of then, now & tomorrow**

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stand-alone 1; prompt taken from _30romances_ (livejournal)

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><p><strong>2. The subconscious ; Bury<strong>

He cannot pinpoint when it all began, but he knows that it cannot be stopped. Not now, not after everything, not even if he _wanted_ to—which he _doesn't_, he snarls, lowly and dangerously, as if he could actually frighten himself to submission in the way he terrifies anyone with a single look. He does not _want_ to stop, because he does not need anything but this.

He needs nothing but power and revenge. He does not want, does not yearn for anything but fulfilling his goal—that was all there was to it; to his _life_. That is all he has.

Hatred, desire for revenge, bloodlust, a goal. That is all, that was everything.

_But it had not always been that way_—there was more to that '_all_', once. There was more to that '_everything_'. However, ever so slowly he begins to forget there even was a _before_ this—a before the darkness. It seemed impossible to look down at his hands and find them spotless white instead of tainted crimson. It seemed like they have been this way all along.

Like _he_ has been this way all along.

But a part of him knows that is not true; a really, really small part that grows quieter and quieter with each passing day, weaker and weaker until it's at the verge of disappearing altogether—but that sometimes screamed loudly and desperately when he closed his eyes.

The scream was usually represented by her betrayed face—_hers_, the face of the one he discarded after deeming her useless, the one whose name he does not even think about anymore. It would come to him unexpectedly, as he tried to fall asleep, and getting through his low defenses and tired senses it would cause something inside of him to tighten; it was like her betrayed eyes and pained face were taking a hold of something inside of him and _twisting_ it with all their might, and in those nights Sasuke would feel an ounce of something unknown that he does not care—does not _dare_—to name.

He would wake up, restless, cutting short the remembrance before it could expand—_expand like a flicker of light would widen until it reaches every dark corner in a room_—he cuts it before that face can morph into a blonde's, and then into his brother's, and then into the faces of the people that had once meant something to him.

Because that was the only thing he can, _slightly_, remember; there were people aside from his dead clan that once meant something to him.

Once.

But that once is no more, and that once will _never_ come to be again; so when he sees them one next time, he feels nothing. No shame, no regret, no hesitation, no consideration; no nothing. Not even when his eyes met the red ones that haunt his nightmares, not even _then_ does he feel a sting of anything.

But sometimes, when he closes his eyes, there's something threatening to spill inside of him—like a tide leaping through the fissures of a worn out dam. Something threatening to spread out and overwhelm him fully from the inside.

He makes sure it never does.

—

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><p>I originally posted it under the title "Once". This prompt seemed to fit it down to a T, so I hope you guys felt the same way.<p>

Special thanks to GeishaKitten for her kind review. I hope you'll feel the same way about this one~!

- Kanae


	4. Strength

**Notes:** Much like the previous drabble (and like the next) I wrote this back in 2010 and it was inspired by chapters 480, 481 and 482. The difference however is that I wrote this one in the spur of the moment for the SasuKarin FC at NarutoForums, and as such I never posted it elsewhere. I came across it recently however and I did not find it too embarrassing (perhaps a bit dramatic, but the circumstances warrant it, I guess) so I decided to bring it here. I did not alter it at all though, so it may be familiar for some.

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><p><strong>.<strong>

**fragments of then, now & tomorrow**

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stand-alone 2; prompt taken from _30romances_ (livejournal)

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**34. Pins and Needles **(post chapter 480)

As Danzou throws her aside, Karin does not feel any pain. There's no pain not even when her body hits the ground with a loud, dry thud that echoes of dying bodies and fading life.

But there _was_ pain when she looked into his eyes, the eyes that she used to—when they were something that was not _this_—love so much, the eyes that she could lose herself into without even trying and that were now looking like something completely unknown. There's pain when she sees his face contort in an expression unlike any she has ever seen him make before.

She was so caught up in disbelief over the change that she barely registered his words, but even though she could barely discern what he was saying, they still took her breath away as if they were a physical hit to the pit of her stomach. They left her breathless, painting, and now more than ever the dryness in her eyes cut like steel. There was a sensation, an itch spreading from her eyes down her face and to the tips of her fingers, making a painful shiver run through them, its remains leaving her body numb, unfeeling.

But her mind though hazy was still functioning properly, and she wishes that it had become as numb as her body had. Because as she sees his feet moving away from her—as she sees him walking away from the corner of her eyes, without a single second of hesitation or any regard for her at all; without any regard for the woman who had just saved his life and risked hers in order to achieve it. The woman who trained herself and her emotions and her mind in order to become someone who would be useful to him, someone he could proudly call an ally, someone he would not think of discarding.

_So much for that... so much for this…._

In that moment when Sasuke's overwhelming presence—overwhelming _now_, just as much as ever, but for completely different reasons—leaves her, the pain reaches such a point that she thinks that she's going to die from it.

Not from the gaping hole in her torso, no; but from heartbreak. From shock. From disappointment.

But not in the one who had stabbed her through the chest, no; she cannot be disappointed in someone whom she does not know. Rather, she was disappointed with herself.

_All this time... and the only thing I ever wanted... I was incapable of achieving._

She makes an effort to keep her eyes open, staring straight down at the blood-stained earth beneath her. If she closes her eyes, she can see him there. Burned behind her eyelids as if he had been carved with a match that set her insides on fire.

Except that what she could see _now_—the look she cannot get off her mind does the opposite and extinguishes the flame burning inside of her instead, helps the life she cannot hold onto to slip more effortlessly through her blood and the tears she's crying in the inside, the tears that corrode her entrails like acid—but she just cannot let them out.

She no longer has the strength.

—

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><p>Karin (and her emotional strength) will forever have my admiration.<p>

Thanks for reading!


	5. Slipping slowly from my reach

**Notes**: As I mentioned before, I wrote this drabble in the spur of the moment for the SasuKarin FC at NarutoForums back in February, 2010. I barely edited it, just fixed some funky grammar here and there so once again, it may be familiar to some. It was based on a quote: "_slipping slowly from my reach_" - and it is also its title.

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**fragments of then, now & tomorrow**

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stand-alone 3; prompt taken from _30romances_ (livejournal)

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><p><strong>13. heads or tails, you lose <strong>(post chapter 480)

Karin had never considered Sasuke to be out of her reach, not really. Regardless of the way he acted, it was hard to see him as unreachable when he had been the one to reach out to her in the first place. He had been the one to pick her up and include Karin into his life—_to engrave himself permanently into hers, own her heart in ways she cannot put into words_—so from the beginning he had been right there at arm's length, continuously by her side with his overwhelming presence and his dark eyes.

She was aware that there was a sense of distance between them, _yes_—well, not exactly between _them_. Rather, the sense of distance came from a barrier that Sasuke put between himself and the world. But Karin had seen through it enough times to know that he would be there if she reached out and dared to grasp him, dared to hold onto him and not let go.

But she never dared. She respected his way of living too much and _knew_ that if she forced Sasuke to lace his fingers with hers, she would become a burden. She would be giving him something he would not know _what_ to do with, would be adding a weight that he had not asked for; a weight he had been _running_ from.

She respected him enough to understand that there was a time for everything, and right then, the time for what she wanted had yet to come.

So she would wait. She would remain by his side in the way he wanted her to, and would _wait_. The appropriate moment would, for sure, eventually arrive. And once it did she would cross the barrier and tear down his walls and _seize_ him—his heart, this _thing_ they had—and she would never let go, not even if Sasuke was scared, not even if he was uncertain—she would _not_ let him run away from this.

From her.

Except that now he was not running but walking instead, but to Karin it was all the same as the moment never came and Sasuke—_whatever it was she had of him, she cannot be too sure anymore as what she knows pools underneath her tainted with the crimson color of the blood she had been willing to shed for him_—slipped away from her outstretched hand, her fingers losing their strength and holding onto thin air instead and coming back with nothing but _'could've been_'s and _'won't be_'s.

And as she hears his steps growing fainter and fainter as he leaves her to die, Karin cannot help but wonder what would have happened if she had been able to grasp him one last time.

She does not think that Sasuke is capable of burning anything, not anymore.

He would have frozen her instead.

—

**.end**

****This is the last fragment of this collection, I hope the rest have been enjoyable. Thank you for reading, and extra thanks to those who have taken the time to review and tell me their thoughts. It was much appreciated!

- Kanae


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